"NO SIM" Problem

[ph4ist]

So Ive had my iPhone for about 7 months now and i've never had any problem with it until about 4 months ago every once and awhile it would say "no SIM card installed," and all network abilities would be useless. I would just turn it off, then back on and it would be okay again. That would happen about once or twice a week. Now today it did it and i did my usual restart on it and it kept say "NO SIM" so i don't know what to do now. Ive taken the SIM out and back in, restored it and still the same message. Any ideas?

Forrest

 

[aristobrat]

You can try taking the eraser from a pencil and using that to "clean" the chip part of the SIM. Be sure to dust if off good before you put it back in.

I haven't had the "NO SIM" problem on my iPhone, but I've had it off and on over the last few years on various other phones. That almost always fixed it for me.

 

[zainjetha]

is this a jb or legal iphone?

 

[ph4ist]

never Jailbroken or unlocked

 

[lozanoj83]

Genious Bar at the Apple store is the best bet

 

[SFStateStudent]

Yep, Apple Store and they might end up putting in a new SIM card or a new iPhone. Back-up your iPhone!

 

[aristobrat]

Actually, the Apple Store has no SIMs to give. They'll refer you to an AT&T store. But the Apple Store should be able to tell you if it is a SIM problem vs. an iPhone problem.

 

[danny_w]

I would take it to the Apple store and have it looked at. My first iPhone had this problem the very first time I turned it on, and nothing would help except temporarily. I took it to the Apple store and the gave me a new iPhone, which has never had the issue. They said at the time that it could be the SIM card or the phone, but they didn't have any SIMs, so they just gave me a new phone. I took it home, activated it, and all has been fine since then.

 

[rhubarbbs]

I have this problem too...

In fact both my father and I have it. We both get weak signals in our homes and so we've been able to see what seems like a correlation between the signal fading and the phone going into "No Sim" mode. I been paying attention and it happens in other areas where the signal fades: parking garages... airport runways right after landing... etc.

We both called support independently and found that Apple made the laughable suggestion to just try popping out the SIM chip, blowing on it, and then re-seating it. I mean this is the 12 year Nintendo "fix it" tip that we all tried when Mike Tyson's Punch Out would boot up with lines across the screen.

I stopped laughing when it worked. Seriously I haven't had the problem since. This doesn't explain the correlation. Maybe some dust on this SIM causes a weak connection and somehow that comes into play when the reception is poor... doesn't make sense immediately but here's to wild speculation.

However, it seems like a problem that's more like herpes: it's treatable but will flare up again later when the phone gets dirty.

This is actually the second "dirt" related issue if had with the phone. Some pocket fuzz got caught in the headphone jack and my phone thought that the headphones were plugged in. Made disabled the earpiece in the iPhone body and I could not hear callers.